caulfield12

15. Tigers at White Sox, 4:10 p.m. Tarik Skubal vs. Garrett Crochet Is the Skubal we saw in the second half last year — the one who might have been one of the best pitchers in baseball — the real deal? If he is, this Tigers team may have some real plucky potential in this division. The White Sox? Well, maybe not so much. But at least Crochet — moving to a starting role after throwing 73 Major League relief innings since 2020 — will always be able to say he was an Opening Day starter. MLB.com rated this as the 15th best Opening Day pitching match-up, haha.

What's the longest losing streak to start a season?? Longest Losing Streak to Start a Season: 21 Baltimore Orioles (1988) The 1988 Orioles easily own this mark as the next longest skid was the Cubs' 14-game drought to begin the 1997 season...

That was just to further cut his salary down to more palatable JR size...

https://sports.yahoo.com/march-madness-north-carolinas-armando-bacot-received-probably-100-dms-from-bettors-after-michigan-state-win-231502082.html Now they're going to pretend against college sports is "pure/sacrosanct" from betting? Ha, ha, ha...

Amazing job considering where that ISU program was just two years ago...

https://sports.yahoo.com/reusse-durans-injury-dark-cloud-100000754.html Compete from Year 1, Getz??? Especially when you now consider the current (what is likely to be a lingering) injury to close Duran...and the big hole in the rotation caused by the losses of Gray and Maeda. Replaced by Varland, Paddack (first year back from TJS) and the unlikelihood of getting much of anything from DeSclafini...not a whole lot of depth there. Minnesota practically daring the rest of the division to come after them. Only the Tigers really seem to be mounting a challenge.

Leone? Shewmake? Has to be one of the relievers. Eloy or Moncada injury...

"First of all, there's just tremendous truth in that..." At least good use of alliteration there, Getzie.

Monday's second round NCAA women's tournament matchup between the No. 1 seed Hawkeyes and No. 8 seed West Virginia Mountaineers, broadcast by ESPN, averaged 4.9 million viewers, marking the largest pre-Final Four audience in women's March Madness, Sports Media Watch reported Tuesday. In comparison, Iowa's first-round victory over No. 16 seed Holy Cross drew 3.2 millions viewers to ABC Saturday, becoming the most-viewed first round game on record, ESPN announced. The weekend's slate of games across ESPN platforms was the most-consumed first round of the NCAA women's tournament ever, with 1.5 billion minutes watched, ESPN said. For all the hype about Clark, however, Iowa isn’t the only team to put up big numbers thus far. Leading into Monday night’s WVU-Iowa battle, the 6 p.m. ET UConn-Syracuse game averaged just shy of 2.1 million viewers, while LSU’s 83-56 blowout of Middle Tennessee on Sunday also topped the 2 million mark.

All five AL Central teams are in the Bottom 13 teams on that list. Three NL Central in Bottom 10...Reds Pirates Brewers.

https://www.mlb.com/whitesox/news/white-sox-2024-season-preview-prediction “I feel like we’ve raised the IQ of our club, which was something we wanted to accomplish out here,” Getz said. “I think we are going to reap the rewards as the season goes on.” “We brought in a ton of guys that we felt were talented,” said Grifol after Monday’s exhibition game against Triple-A Charlotte. “But when you bring in a lot of guys, what happens is you don’t know how they’re going to jell together. Over the offseason, and this camp, these guys have kind of turned into a team.” What needs to go right? Young talent needs to develop, perform The White Sox are not going through a rebuild, as has been mentioned many times before. At least, they aren’t following the path of a complete teardown… Bold prediction: Andrew Vaughn will be an All-Star Let me start this final category with a disclaimer: My 2023 bold prediction was Tim Anderson winning AL MVP. Anderson is my choice for NL Comeback Player of the Year in ’24 and was the driving force of the White Sox for many a season, but last year was the lone truly subpar showing of his career. With that said, Vaughn seems ready to turn his solid career numbers into excellence and is as comfortable as I’ve seen him as a Major Leaguer. Soroka and Robert pitching and hitting team MVP’s predicted by Merkin as well.

https://www.espn.co.uk/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39816436/holy-cross-iowa-most-viewed-women-ncaa-tournament-opener https://sports.yahoo.com/best-player-america-paige-bueckers-181742122.html Of course, a lot of people in America are going to argue JuJu Watkins (USC), Angel Reese or Hannah Hidalgo (ND), for example. MiLaysia Fulwiley of S.Carolina might easily be the most "talented" player. It's kind of unfortunate that Auriemma, in the process of bringing more attention back to his own player (who won those Player of the Year awards two years ago and came into her freshman year the highest rated player) that another racial aspect of this (the so-called Larry Bird Effect) whole media spotlight on Clark. Then, some of the double standards with her behavior and that of some of the players on LSU and S.Carolina (like the Cardoso shove/suspension) over the past two years or the Angel Reese "now you see me" nonsense. Heck, the Iowa coach Bluder stepped her foot into it last year by forecasting the upcoming matchup with LSU as "it's going to be a bar room brawl" and then Dawn Staley fighting back against those accusing her players of being termed "thugs" when that never actually happened. Then you had the Sheryl Swoopes comments on Caitlin Clark as well. And the media is just thriving on keeping these same story lines going, so UConn for the first time in decades is feeling a little bit left out. https://theathletic.com/5368725/2024/03/26/geno-auriemma-paige-bueckers-comments/ Even as an Iowa fan (and graduate)...I think her moving on from the NCAA level might be the best for all parties concerned, particularly herself. It's just getting to be TOO much. And Clark's letting her temper/competitive nature/whining get the best of her the last month or so as the pressure gets dialed up with each and every game. That type of thing won't happen at the WNBA level, as she'll have a hyper-talented cast of teammates to alleviate that pressure of trying to do everything herself and forcing the issue by taking ill-advised shots or getting upset now with almost any contact from the defense. Am actually looking forward to seeing what Iowa can do without Clark the next two seasons and excited about how they blend in their next two recruiting classes...can they defy all the odds and sustain their momentum, or will they inevitably "return to norm" as their long-time coach eventually retires?

https://sports.yahoo.com/adam-silver-nba-dealing-with-serious-consequences-from-fast-changing-landscape-223331355.html Not directly baseball-related, but certainly quite relevant to the discussion...if MLB continues to go in the direction they are (Sox tie-in with Cesar's SportsBook, etc.) with gambling, then they will continue to lose their way just like the NBA is currently experiencing under Adam Silver.

And VA Tech was playing at home without Kitley due to ACL tear, but still a 4 seed due to previous body of work...so that loss wasn't a shocker at all. MTSU and then K-State surprised me....but Colorado was a projected #1 seed at one point in the year. Ohio State collapse still the biggest mystery of all. And soon to be extinct PAC 10/12 dominating in every way but most elite team...

Iowa fans are STILL complaining about the refereeing in the LSU game last year...but also overlooking how SEC refs never called fouls on SCarolina for their "overly physical/bar room brawl" style of play (until the Final Four) that West Virginia also employed last night. Perhaps on a neutral court the result would have been different...that said, NCAA football playoffs will provide the bye teams with home games and the home field advantage (as well as viewing experience at home) will be so much more exciting/entertaining than neutral courts with 1/4th or 1/2 the fans missing like the first two rounds of the men's bb tourney.

Outrage over calls for Caitlin Clark, Iowa surest sign yet women's game has arrived... https://sports.yahoo.com/outrage-over-calls-caitlin-clark-101202220.html Well...this is something new for Iowa fans who always believe refs favored Ohio State MSU PSU Michigan Illinois Wisconsin...the conspiracy theory that ESPN and ABC needed Iowa on Saturday afternoon for ratings. LSU also getting that 1 pm Saturday ABC slot while Indiana/S.Carolina is on ESPN. Granted that's a Friday game...

Jesus, talk about "chalk" for the women's tournament. Three tourneys in a row Iowa struggled in the second round...Creighton (lost), UGA (only up by 1 with a minute left) and now WVU (tied 48-48 with five minutes to go). Going to be a dream weekend for ESPN/ABC. SAT Duke/UConn Baylor/USC Colorado/Iowa LSU/UCLA SUN (projected) ND/South Carolina Stanford or NC State vs. Texas MON (projected) UConn/USC LSU/Iowa Of course, wouldn't be surprised to see Iowa (really thought they were going down tonight)...although they did beat Colorado at this exact point in the proceedings a year ago. It's almost impossible to believe they could beat LSU, and then even if they managed that, they would be so wiped out physically and mentally that S.Carolina would roll them by 15-20.

Mookie Betts also does that drill. He was throwing 40 yard spirals in Japan.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39785389/mlb-2024-season-preview-opening-day-power-rankings-playoff-odds-all-30-teams Royals jump to 26th with all that new spending...coming off around same number of losses last year Sox are projected to be around THIS year.

One (realistic) bold prediction: The White Sox use 25 different starting pitchers -- breaking the MLB record of 24 shared by the 1915 A's and 2023 A's -- and stumble to 107 losses, most in franchise history. Along the way, Robert is traded at the deadline. -- Schoenfield ESPN picks Sox for 28th on OD, praises ballpark food in a nod to Benetti...way too early on Robert trade, though.

And it really does seem like many teams were collectively firing a shot across the bow of the SMS Boras... Almost all of the late signees were tied to him, and got fewer years and overall contract dollars than nearly everyone expected going back to November.

Well, Maton's technically a reliever (he was pretty forgettable with the Padres) who has ended up having a much better big league career than most would have expected. And dumping the Straw contract there was the icing on the cake. Losing Diaz and Junior Caminero to the Rays has to hurt quite a bit, particularly for a small market team on a shoestring budget.

Appears like they're starting the year with Nastrini on the roster...

Well, they already kind of started with that 3 point contest, and then it's going to be Curry/Thompson vs. Ionescu/Clark next year SUPPOSEDLY. Iowa State almost took out Stanford but came up short in OT at Maples.